Location Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, New York City Dancing Down the Colonnade with Brian Marcus

Brian Marcus is a third-generation wedding and portrait photographer. His grandfather – Fred Marcus, founded the company’s NYC studio back in 1945. Under the stewardship of his grandson, Brian Marcus, the studio photographs about 250 weddings a year.

This portrait of newlyweds dancing on the stairway leading to Central Park’s Bethesda Fountain was captured on a perfectly sunny day. Despite the sunshine, the tall treetops surrounding the perimeter of the stairway rendered the light that did manage to get through mottled and in need of enhancement.

In order to add a stronger visual dynamic to the scene, Brian had an assistant mount a bare-head Profoto B1 Off-Camera Flash on a light stand to the left and slightly behind the groom. This light, which was hidden by the center-left column, served as a rim light, separating the couple from the flatter background.

The main light, a matching B1 with a Softlight Reflector White, was positioned behind the column center-right of the couple to throw a snappier, more stylized wash of light onto them as they two-stepped along the stairs.

The final image was captured using a Nikon D4 and a Nikon AF 35mm f/2D lens. With the camera’s ISO set to 250, the exposure worked out to 1/200th at f7.1.

For Brian, the beauty of the B1 is multifold. For starters, he truly appreciates having the ability to maintain complete exposure control even when shooting at great distances from his subjects. Nor does he need power outlets or having to spend post-capture time retouching sync and power cables from the final image. And then there’s the quality of light, which is why Marcus shoots with a Profoto Off-Camera Flash system in the first place.